Friday, 30 August 2013

Today I played Wayne in the first battle of the second turn of our Firstorm: Lorraine campaign. Wayne hasn't been involved so far, but we've been trying to arrange a game of something for ages, so it seemed a good opportunity to get him involved.

Once again, I failed to get the initiative despite having a bonus to the roll, and so Wayne would be attacking with his Panzers across the Moselle. The scenario was Counter-attack and I would be the defender. Narratively it seems that the arrival of Panzer Brigade 112 gave the Germans the confidence to launch a push across the river at a perceived weakness in the US lines. The American tanks of the the 4th Armored Division would rush south to plug the gap.

As this was a Counter Attack Mission, I could only begin with one wheeled or tracked platoon on the table. The Airborne Engineers, Rifles and Artillery dug themselves into the cornfields with a liberal sprinkling of mines to deter enemy tanks from coming through the gate and prayed that they could hold the objective. Meanwhile, my large Sherman platoon hid behind a house on a hill, keeping an eye on the objective to my right (the Opel Blitz truck - I need some american objective markers). The rest of the force was held in reserve.

Actually, although the Hungarians were off losing their country at this point in the war, I quite like the fact that the German Panzerkompanies that have appeared so far in the campaign have been older models and allied forces, reflecting the desperate, scratch built nature of the German resistance. You'll also notice that there's a fair bit of proxying going on: Nebelwerfers as 105mm Howitzers, Russian Winter Infantry as US Rifles, also, Wayne's Hungarians are still WIP so there's a few more unpainted miniatures than usual.

As he was attacking, Wayne got the first turn.

HUNGARIAN TURN 1

The Hungarian Recce teams (Toldi tanks and Motorcycle Scouts) leapt off to my right towards the building overlooking the unguarded objective.

Whilst the Scout platoon occupied the building, clearly intending to wait until turn 6 and then leap onto the objective, whilst the Toldi platoon audaciously whipped round behind the Shermans and took cover. Meanwhile the armoured might of the Hungarians rolled towards the cropfields and poured MG fire into the Airborne Engineers, killing three. The Panzergrenadiers also managed to kill the artillery observer hiding in the the house on the hill.

US TURN 1

In the face of a wall of steel the Rifles and Engineers cowered in their foxholes whilst the Shermans backed off. Dividing their fire the Shermans wrecked two Toldi tanks, forcing the others away, and destroyed one of the Nimrods on the hill.

Seeing the massed of Axis armour, the CIC ordered the 105's to bring down a bombardment which managed to destroy one of the Tiger tanks. With three enemy platoons on the verge of destruction, the Americans looked to the horizon in search of the reserves.

TURN 1 CASUALTIES

Harckocsizo Szazad

Hackocsizo Platoon 3 – Tiger I
E

Light Hackocsizo Platoon – 2 Toldi
II

AA Platoon – Nimrod

US 4th Armoured

Airborne Engineers – 3 Stands

Field Artillery Battery – Observer
Team

HUNGARIAN TURN 2

The Panzergrenadiers occupied the house on the hill in order to help pouring fire into the Airborne Engineers, whilst one of the Panzer IV platoons began to move carefully around the minefield to attack the Artillery. The remaining Tiger when Sherman hunting and managed to destroy one. Meanwhile, with the Airborne Engineers pinned, the second platoon of Panzer IV's risked an assault into the cropfield. A well placed Bazooka, took out one of the enemy tanks and the Fearless Veteran Pioneers, managed to destroy another of the Panzers and drive off the other without loss.

US TURN 2

Still faced with massed machine guns, the Airborne Engineers and the Rifles hunkered down and awaited the reserves.

To the relief of the American commander, Olive Green shapes appeared on the horizon, the cavalry had arrived! Well, the light cavalry at least; the Stuarts.

Caught between the advancing Tiger, the Panzerfaust toting Panzergrenadiers, the Toldi light tanks and the Scout platoon, and hemmed in by the long range Panthers, the Shermans did an awkward dance in order to avoid assault, but still get flank shots on the Tiger. However, all they achieve was leaving themselves in the open and even failed to smoke the beast. The 105's also failed to nail halt any Panzer IV's with direct fire. The next turn was likely to hurt...

TURN 2 CASUALTIES

Harckocsizo Szazad

Hackocsizo Platoon 2 – 2
Panzer IV

Hackocsizo Platoon 3 – Tiger I
E

Light Hackocsizo Platoon – 2 Toldi
II

AA Platoon – Nimrod

US 4th Armoured

Tank Platoon 1 – Sherman

Airborne Engineers – 3 Stands

Field Artillery Battery – Observer
Team

HUNGARIAN TURN 3

The Tiger, the Panthers, the Panzerfausts and a single Panzer IV opened fire on the Shermans, but somehow only managed to kill one of them! As expected, the 2iC led a Panzer Platoon into the crop field containing the Artillery, forced them to flee and turned the flank of the US line. Meanwhile, another Engineer stand fell to MG fire.

US TURN 3

More Sherman tanks appeared in the distance, would they be able to get to the battle in time?

The Stuarts, took up a position on a ridge to pour fire into the scouts, but only succeeded in killing a single stand.

Meanwhile, with Panzers on their flank, the Americans decided to go for broke. However, the Airborne Engineers failed to unpin, the Rifles assaulting the lone Panzer IV were halted by defensive fire (although a lucky Bazooka shot managed to bail the tank), and the Shermans assaulted the Panzergrenadiers in the house, killing two stands, forcing them to withdraw and consolidated away from the Panthers leaving one bailed tank in the wreckage of the house. (Apologies for the picture below, I can't seem to upload the rotated version.)

TURN 3 CASUALTIES

Harckocsizo Szazad

Hackocsizo Platoon 2 – 2
Panzer IV

Hackocsizo Platoon 3 – Tiger I
E

Light Hackocsizo Platoon – 2 Toldi
II

AA Platoon – DESTROYED

Panzergrenadier Platoon – 2
Stands

US 4th Armoured

HQ – 2iC Sherman

Tank Platoon 1 – DESTROYED

Airborne Engineers – 4 Stands

Field Artillery Battery – DESTROYED

Rifle Platoon – 1 Stand

HUNGARIAN TURN 4

The Americans were in the open and ripe for the taking. German tanks once again opened up on the Shermans, destroying all but the bailed tank, which promptly failed its motivation test.

The Panzer IV's assaulted into the rear of the Rifles and cut a swathe through them, however, the ground pounders didn't break and an epic struggle ensued.

When the Hungarian 2iC finally withdrew from the fight, the platoon commander and Bazooka team were still in control of the objective and an entire platoon of Panzer IV's had been destroyed.

US TURN 4

Two platoons down, the Americans once again received reserves in the form of the Recce Platoon.

Knowing that the Recce could deal with the Motorcycle Scouts, the Stuarts were freed up to engage in a bold strategy and drove into the teeth of the Panthers and concentrated their fire on destroying the remaining Nimrod.

Their aim was to draw fire away from the Shermans which swept round the flank of the Panthers, destroying one, but would it be enough?

TURN 4 CASUALTIES

Harckocsizo Szazad

Hackocsizo Platoon 1 – DESTROYED

Hackocsizo Platoon 2 – 2
Panzer IV

Hackocsizo Platoon 3 – Tiger I
E

Light Hackocsizo Platoon – 2 Toldi
II

AA Platoon – DESTROYED

Panzergrenadier Platoon – 2
Stands

Panther Platoon – Panther

US 4th Armoured

HQ – 2iC Sherman

Tank Platoon 1 – DESTROYED

Airborne Engineers – 4 Stands

Field Artillery Battery – DESTROYED

Rifle Platoon – 9 Stands

TURN 5

The Panthers took the bait and fired on the Stuarts, destroying two and bailing one, however, the plucky little tanks didn't break. The Tiger finally got the American Commander. MG fire killed the Rifle platoon commander whilst the Hungarian 2iC assaulted the Bazooka stand and was promptly destroyed!

The remaining Stuarts dashed through the wrecked tanks and managed to bail the lone Panzer IV. The Sherman reserves scuttled behind the Panthers and finished them off. The Airborne Engineers unloaded their weapons at the pinned Panzergrenadiers and killed a stand, but decided against assaulting. The Recce platoon shot up the house containing the Motorcycle Scouts and killed stand.

TURN 5 CASUALTIES

Harckocsizo Szazad

HQ – 2iC Panzer IV

Hackocsizo Platoon 1 – DESTROYED

Hackocsizo Platoon 2 – 2 Panzer
IV

Hackocsizo Platoon 3 – Tiger I
E

Light Hackocsizo Platoon – 2 Toldi
II

Recce Platoon – 1 Stand

AA Platoon – DESTROYED

Panzergrenadier Platoon – 3 Stands

Panther Platoon – DESTROYED

US 4th Armoured

HQ – DESTROYED

Tank Platoon 1 – DESTROYED

Light Tank Platoon – 2 Stuarts

Airborne Engineers – 4 Stands

Field Artillery Battery – DESTROYED

Rifle Platoon – 10 Stands

TURN 6

With the battle going down to the wire, the Hungarians made a move for the objectives. With the Panzergrenadiers still pinned, a lone Toldi (the other was bogged on a wall) assaulted the Bazooka team, and was destroyed, however the second assault by the Tiger succeeded and the brave Bazooka team finally succumbed. The Tiger then consolidated onto the objective. Meanwhile the scouts finally made their move and ran towards the other objective.

Both objectives were in Hungarian hands.

The remains of the American tank company charged forwards. The Recce platoon moved to contest the objective held by their opposite numbers. The Shermans came over the hill and shot up the Panzergrenadiers that were pinned in the open, killing them all. The Stuarts destroyed the bailed Panzer IV that had somehow survived the battle and the Airborne Engineers heroically assaulted the Tiger, losing a stand but driving it off the objective.

TURN 6 CASUALTIES

Harckocsizo Szazad

HQ – 2iC Panzer IV

Hackocsizo Platoon 1 – DESTROYED

Hackocsizo Platoon 2 – DESTROYED

Hackocsizo Platoon 3 – Tiger I
E

Light Hackocsizo Platoon – 3 Toldi
II

Recce Platoon – 2 Stands

AA Platoon – DESTROYED

Panzergrenadier Platoon – DESTROYED

Panther Platoon – DESTROYED

US 4th Armoured

HQ – DESTROYED

Tank Platoon 1 – DESTROYED

Light Tank Platoon – 2 Stuarts

Airborne Engineers – 5 Stands

Field Artillery Battery – DESTROYED

Rifle Platoon – DESTROYED

With only 3 tanks and half a Recce platoon left, the Hungarian commander signalled the retreat leaving the battered Americans in control of the field.

With a 4-3 victory, all Firestorm troops needed to roll to see if they were destroyed. None were, which was a relief as I later realised that due to campaign rules, Wayne shouldn't have had the Panzergrenadiers, and it would have been unfortunate to lose them. In terms of the map, nothing has changed, however, the Germans have missed an opportunity to push back the advancing Third Army.

In terms of the battle, I'm largely happy with how it went. By staying in the fight, my infantry not only bought time for the reserves to arrive, but also conserved their numbers in order to repel repeated assaults, which they did with stoic brilliance.

I lost the artillery too easily, and need to have another think about how I deploy artillery in the future, and on Turn 3 I lost my head and almost the game. In retrospect, I should have sat tight with the Rifles. They would still have been assaulted, but they would have lost less stands to enemy fire and would have survived the experience in better shape. As it was, I was extremely lucky to win that assault. I also probably should have concentrated on smoking the Tiger and delaying with the Shermans rather than assaulting the infantry, my reserves were a turn away and things would have been a little less shaky with some surviving Shermans knocking about to threaten the weakened enemy platoons.

Overall, my experience with my German infantry taught me to sit tight and try to weather the storm, which I just about managed and even my little M4A1's and Stuarts showed that they could mix it up with the big cats with a bit of thought.

Next up, I switching sides quicker than a capitulating Romanian and playing the Germans against Matt's Americans. The 'Big Question': do I muster the Panthers only to find out that he's bringing the 101st Airborne, or do I line up my infantry and then discover that he's brought a billion 50cals and carpet bombing? Hmmm...choices...

Tuesday, 27 August 2013

It's been a while. Holiday and moving house have curtailed not only my painting gaming, but also my access to the internet. However, everything is back to normal now, and regular service will be resumed.

As a brief catch up, in the last two months I've begun very slow work on an Impetus army of Sicillian Hoplites. I've also played a couple of games against Pete's Carthaginians. I lost both in exactly the same way, despite starting well, with a big unit of Gauls smashing into my General's unit, breaking it and causing the rest of the army to crumble. There'll be more on Impetus in the future.

I also managed to get a couple of games of X-Wing against Matt. As a break from the norm, we played some scenarios. I proved myself to to be completely terrible at the game, but did manage to fly a TIE Fighter off the board again by turning the wrong way on the dial (my signature move).

Finally, I caught up with Andy and Steve who I haven't seen in ages and played a couple of games of Warhammer. I was using my Vampire Counts led by a blender Vampire (Always Strikes First, 5 Attacks, Strength 7, Gains a new attack for each wound caused) leading a big bus of Black Knights. Despite my glorious general killing dozens of Andy's Beastmen, he was held up enough to allow the rest of my army to by eaten. Against Steve's wood Elves, he cut a swathe through the enemy and won the game by destroying enemy banners (it was a Blood and Glory scenario). All in all, good fun. I'm going to try to get back to Warhammer a bit more.

Finally, I watched Matt and Pete play the final game in the first turn of our Firestorm: Lorraine campaign for Flames of War. Pete's Herman Goering Panzers (supported by the SS) had an Encounter with Matt's 101st Airborne as they attempted to capture Mairy and break the encirclement of Luxembourg. An initially dangerous thrust by Pete's Panzers was met an destroyed by Matt's reserve Sherman 76's and threw him onto the defensive until his own reserves arrived in time to push back the advancing Paratroopers. A second thrust by Panzer III's and Stug G's almost broke through the U.S. positions, but a timely assault with Gammon Bombs halted the Germans and broke their resolve.

To add insult to injury, as despite his losses, Matt didn't lose a platoon, so it was a 6-1 win, which meant that Matt's Firstorm troops were safe, whilst Pete's SS were destroyed. However, due to this being the end of the turn, the SS would be back for the next battle as they weren't captured.

Here's how the map looked after the battle:

The current scores are as follows:

US Third Army

German Army Group G

Mairy

10

Luxembourg

50

Verdun

80

Metz

70

Bar-de-Luc

30

Arrancourt

20

Luxembourg/German Border

20

Nancy

50

Captured Panzers

10

Dompaire

20

Epinal

20

Luneville

20

Strasbourg

80

TOTAL

140

TOTAL

330

Despite US gains, the Germans are still firmly in control of the region and had only actually lost one unit of Firestorm troops. All was not lost.

With the end of of the turn, both Generals were allowed to move their Firestorm troops to prepare for the next round. Pete also received support in the form of Panzers to the south and the reformed SS. Matt would be able to bring his own massed tanks into the fray, along with the French 2eme Division Blindee.

In an aggressive move, Matt has pushed his tanks forward to threaten all along the Moselle and is trying to exploit the opening to the north. Pete has largely stayed in place, only pushing his Panzers forward and moving the SS to stop the American breakthrough.

There will be 8 battles in this turn and the Allies still add 1 to their initiative rolls and win ties. I'll be playing the first game of the turn this week, turning out my US Tanks against Wayne's Hungarians.